DECEMBER 17, 1897.] 
poses are to be appropriated to the University 
library as soon as they can be vacated. The 
site now occupied by the old Anatomical School, 
part of the pathological department and a por- 
tion of the unoccupied part in Downing street 
is to be reserved for the erection of new build- 
ings for the medical, surgical and pathological 
departments. 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
THE recent editorial of SCIENCE on the sub- 
ject of the United States Fish Commission is 
unfortunately misleading in some of its state- 
ments, and, in justice not only to the Commis- 
sioner but to the entire personnel of the Com- 
mission, these should be corrected. 
While the amount of scientific work accom- 
plished under the direction of the Commission 
may not be as great as men of science might 
wish, it must be remembered that, after all, the - 
primary object of the Commission is to preserve 
and increase the fisheries, and, so far as this 
ean be accomplished by artificial propagation, 
this has been done. Moreover, it should be 
borne in mind that, aside from salaries, the sum 
to be expended in any one branch is determined 
by the appropriation committee, and the appro- 
priation for 1898 contained $132,000 for the 
propagation of food fishes and but $10,500 for 
scientific research. 
A comparison of the annual reports for a few 
years back will show that it is hardly just to 
say that ‘the efficiency of the hatcheries and 
of methods of distribution cannot be advanced 
or even maintained.’ In regard to the oyster 
the work of Dr. J. A. Ryder and others under 
the Fish Commission is well known, and it may 
be said that the investigations of the past two 
years compare favorably with those of previous 
years, and that important reports on the sub- 
ject have been published. 
In regard to the lobster it is hardly correct 
to say that ‘weare not told how many eggs 
are killed at the hatcheries,’ when the report 
of the Commissioner definitely says that ‘128, - 
000,000 eggs were secured, producing 115,000,- 
000 fry.’ The rest of the matter is unjust 
because, as in the case of shad, the eggs were 
all obtained from animals taken for market, 
SCIENCE. 
le 
and had they not been purchased by the Fish 
Commission the eggs would have been a total 
loss to mankind, and the adult lobster would 
have been killed instead of being returned to 
the water. While the sale of ‘ berried lobsters’ 
is prohibited by law, very little regard is paid 
to the statute, as it is an easy matter to scrape 
off the eggs and sell the females without run- 
ning the least risk. Instead of the work being 
analogous to ‘taking all the babies born in 
New York City and depositing them in a baby 
farm,’ it is like rescuing them from ‘baby 
farms’ and worse, and transferring them to a 
municipal orphan asylum. 
That the Commissioner of Fisheries should 
have a practical and scientific knowledge of 
fishes is undeniable, but meanwhile let us at 
least be just to the present one. epeAwe li: 
[CERTAINLY the Fish Commission should be 
given its due. It is, as we stated in the arti- 
ele referred to, doing a useful work in the dis- 
tribution of fry, but does F. A. L. really believe 
that this can be done in the most satisfactory 
manner under the direction of one ignorant of 
the life-history, habits and natural environ- 
ment of fishes? What does F. A. L. regard as 
the probable outcome, should all the scientific 
departments, bureaus and surveys at Washing- 
ton be placed under the charge of professional 
politicians and their relatives and supporters ? 
Dishonesty would soon follow inefficiency, and 
the present condition of the Fish Commission, 
bad as it is, would be looked back to as rela- 
tively ideal. In mentioning Ryder our corre- 
spondent calls attention to work of the kind 
that the Commission is no longer able to carry 
If we differ from F. A. L. as to the effi- 
ciency with which the lobster is propagated, 
out. 
is the present Commissioner competent to 
decide who is right? We have no wish to 
suppress discussion in this JOURNAL, but it is 
unfortunate if men of science cannot unite 
in maintaining principles on which depend 
the scientific and economic work under the 
government.—ED. SCIENCE. | 
